VLC media player suffering in face of crapware and uncaring Google

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Ask any geek for a media player recommendation that runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux, and you’re guaranteed to hear VLC mentioned quite often. It’s free to download and use, includes support for just about any video format you’d want to watch, and has a dedicated team of developers behind it.

The problem is, while VLC is developed as a not-for-profit open source project, other companies are taking advantage of its popularity to distribute adware and spyware.

If you want to download VLC then the official versions are available at the VideoLan website–the organization composed of volunteers who develop the media player. However, if you do a search for VLC on the top two search engines: Google or Bing, a number of malicious links appear alongside the official VideoLan page.

These other links are put there by companies that want you to download their modified version of VLC that includes adware and spyware. They trade on the good name of VLC in order to infect your system and then start earning money from you and your machine.

The VideoLan team faces two major problems because of this: the first is their software being associated with malicious activity and being flagged by antivirus software as such, and the second being the search engines apparently not willing to do much about it.

Ludovic Fauvet, one of the developers working at VideoLan, has done a blog post about the extent of these malicious alternative versions of VLC. He lists 18 common URLs that appear in search results for VLC, all of which include crapware/adware/spyware. By far the most common are associated with pinballcorp.com, eorezo.com and tut4pc.com (do not visit them).

The reason they manage to get so high up on the search listings is because they are willing to pay for adwords. At the same time, Fauvet states that asking Google to remove these links turns out to be pointless because “Google ignore us, they’re making money with these scams.”

While VideoLan will continue to try its best to stop such links appearing and educate users, we call on the search engines to do more and stop them completely. As consumers, we can all do our part by ensuring we always download from the official link and by encouraging others to do the same whenever possible, especially those people you know who really couldn’t tell that vlc-download.com or vlc.us.com are malicious links.

Speak Your Mind

The “Evil” MS looks to have already helped the situation. I just did a bing search for ‘vlc’ and saw only legit links to the videolan.org site or wikipedia, etc in the top 5-8 links (most of the first page)

Another way to help is to use Google’s +1 button to upvote the genuine search results; +1 clicks are purported to affect search engine rankings… Ultimately, because VLC is GPLv2-licensed, the VLC team ought to seek (and likely has sought) injunctive relief against those redistributing their software in violation of its license.

I just searched in Google and Bing (and DuckDuckGo and Blekko) and I don’t get the same thing portrayed in the screenshot (I tested without AdBlock of course), the first link that I get almost everywhere is to the page of videolan, except in Bing when videolan’s website is the second result and softtonic is the first one. The results doesn’t appear to be confusing. May this be a regional issue?, I am not doing the searches from USA.

When I recommend software I always search the address of what I am recommending and I send that address (my most recommended programs must be VLC and FileZilla, the latter because because I am into web development). If it is in person I just say “I’ll email you the address”.

Chris

It’s a shame that people are taking advantage of VLC’s awesome reputation. Its been my media player of choice for years, even before I started using Linux, because of the codecs it includes. (WMP is a piece of crap) I’ve always gotten it directly from VideoLAN but I can see where ignorant people might get it from just anywhere.

Unfortunately, I’m not surprised that Google is ignoring them and doing nothing about it. They don’t really care what happens on their search engine or any of their stuff, as long as they make money. (Gmail is one of the worst as far as spammers using it to e-mail) Same with MS. As long as they make money and you don’t violate their stupid licensing agreements, they don’t care what you do with their stuff.

BTW, whoever said Bing had only “official” results, I just searched for VLC on both Google and Bing and got the same results, good and bad.

Jaroslaw Filiochowski

Trademarks are your friend.

If VideoLan had trademarked the term “VLC” as referring to a video player, they coud sue the pants off any crapware/adware company trying to make money off it’s name.

DieHardLinux

Tried Google, Bing, and Dogpile. Results showed VideoLan official site in top entries, followed byCnet.

Anonymous

Thats messed up dude, VLC is da bomb! Best player out there.

Drew

This is why Apple’s App store is such a good idea. You’re always sure you get the right application and don’t have to go through 3 web pages and 15 clicks to download and install it.

The Smith

It’s not just Apple’s idea. Linux has been serving software via repository for years and years and years. And yes, carefully managed repositories are the way — the only way, in my view — to distribute software.

Mick420_2007

Where do you hacks get your info from? I just tried a google/bing search for “VLC” and the top 5 were either from videolan, cnet or wiki…..When you’re trying to download such a common program such as VLC player, you don’t need anymore than 5 search engines results, and if you do click on links lower than that top 5, you deserve the malware that comes with it. I am not sure what you’re are trying to accomplish with such an article. If all you wanted was more attention to your site by mentioning such popular terms like”Google” “Bing” and “VLC” then you got it…but other sites also get hits based on “Miley Cyrus Sex Tape”

The problem is, who gets to decide what is or is not “crapware,” “malware,” or otherwise illegitimate software? The legal definition could be as restrictive as only something that is pirated, etc. I think the best defense is using outlets like this to spread the word, common sense, and reading links carefully. Something I admit I sometimes don’t do well enough.

The problem is, who gets to decide what is or is not “crapware,” “malware,” or otherwise illegitimate software? The legal definition could be as restrictive as only something that is pirated, etc. I think the best defense is using outlets like this to spread the word, common sense, and reading links carefully. Something I admit I sometimes don’t do well enough.

jlgrall

Solution: offer users to download the well known Adblock extension for their
navigator along with the VLC download, so that they wont be lured by
malicious ad anymore.

jlgrall

Solution: offer users to download the well known Adblock extension for their
navigator along with the VLC download, so that they wont be lured by
malicious ad anymore.

Rubbish

What rubbish. The screenshot above does not reflect anyone else’s search results. You know what I think, I think your computer is infected with malware that is replacing your search results. Time to clean your computer, mate!

Rubbish

What rubbish. The screenshot above does not reflect anyone else’s search results. You know what I think, I think your computer is infected with malware that is replacing your search results. Time to clean your computer, mate!